Volume 7 Chapter 2 Part 9
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Translation by burnt.marshmallows
Editing by Team Foxsunes
His face was expressionless, but for some reason, he strangely appeared to me like a helpless, impatient child. I scanned through him from the top of his head to the toenails on his bare feet. Hm. I nodded once.
「First of all, let’s see. We have to do something about your clothes before we ear.」
「……Is there still something else?」
I forced a smile as Noct gripped the hem of his ragged clothes with both his hands and asked with a hint of resentment.
「Don’t say that. You can change your clothes later. But wait just a little longer.」
I pat Noct’s head as he continued to stare at the roast chicken on the table, almost drooling. My forced smile deepened as I felt the soaking wet sensation on his head. ANd for some reason, Noct froze up with a 「clink!」and lowered his head.
Well then, I should hurry, for the sake of this starving boy, I quickened my steps as I headed towards my room. I procured the things that I needed and returned back to the dining table.
Without even sitting, and of course without even trying to reach his hands out for the food, Noct curled up uncomfortably and loitered around.
「Sorry for the wait. Here, come over here Noct. Would you please sit down?」
As I pulled a chair from the table and knocked on its backrest to signal for him to come, his yellow eyes were overcome with dismay. It seemed that he had noticed what I was trying to do. Well, I guess if I held a towel and comb like this, there wasn’t any way he wouldn’t know.
「I-I can do it myself!」
「There there. Leave it to me.」
I moved towards Noct, who refused to come over no matter how much time had passed. I pulled him over with my hands and practically forced him to sit down on the chair. He turned around a countless number of times, flustered, to face me as I stood behind the chair rest. But I just turned his head forward and placed a towel over his head.
I ruffled his head with the towel as the towel absorbed all the water up, and took the chance to touch those beast-like ears that sat on his head. It gave off the warmth of any other living being. Finding how those ears would twitch in all directions as I touched them, I couldn’t help but want to catch and touch them more.
「……Hey」
「Ah, I’m sorry.」
I apologized as he said in a low voice, as if to show how deeply uncomfortable it was. I then combed his hair using the comb as I hummed a tune, brushing the hair that had been left unkempt. I brushed his fringe to the sides and then gathered up the rest of his hair to the nape of his neck. I then proceeded to tie his hair up using the golden yellow ribbon that I usually used as an accessory.
There we go. It was quite nice seeing how well it went with his ash-grey hair. He had always been good-looking to begin with, but with his hair tidied and the dirt washed off his face, he fell even better on the eyes. Even those rags just made him look like a lord who was just trying to hide from the public eye. I was suddenly even more excited to see what he would look like when he changed into that man’s clothes.
As I nodded with satisfaction, I looked at Noct’s vulnerable, exposed neck, and suddenly noticed the thing that was wrapped around his neck.
「Oh, what a nice choker.」
「Ah!」
The moment I spoke, Noct pressed his neck, turned around, and glared at me with a hiss. Those yellow eyes of his looked at me sharply and fiercely. That was the first time I saw hostility in his eyes. Instinctively, I cowered down and looked down at him, startled. Based on his response, it was probably something I should not have talked about. I thought after self-reflecting.
「I’m sorry. That was insensitive of me. But rest assured I won’t steal it or anything, alright?」
「……」
Noct didn’t answer me. Instead, he nodded gently in response to my words and turned his face back to the front. I took that opportunity to continue to observe the choker around Noct’s neck. In the middle of the black rubber band, an obsidian-like [1. TL Note: Obsidian is a translucent, black igneous rock] completely black rock was fixed in place. It had no luster to it. It didn’t reflect light at all. Actually, not even that, it looked like it was absorbing light from every perspective. It seemed like quite a high-quality thing for a boy who was dressed like a bum. That thing that tightly wound around his pale-skinned neck looked like a collar. But if I actually said that out loud, it’d be a bit too rude.
But at any rate, I have a feeling I’ve seen this black stone somewhere……. As I went deep into my thoughts, Noct pulled up his rags to conceal his neck, as if he had noticed my stares. Yes, I apologize for saying something impolite and proceeding to do something even more impolite. Without bringing up the choker any more, I went around the table to stand in front of Noct.
「Well then, It’s a bit late, but let us dig in. I express my gratitude to beneficence blessed by the goddess who exists up there.」
「…….」
Rightfully, Noct should have continued after my prayers by saying 「Gratitude」. But he didn’t say anything. He didn’t even clasp his hands together. But I wasn’t such a devout worshipper that I got over a small thing like that either, so I just continued on and took a bite of the salad. Yup, this sour-tasting dressing is delicious. I heard that it was easy to become deficient in vitamins and minerals when one was pregnant, so I should take the chance to eat more while I have the appetite.
As I silently moved my fork, I suddenly noticed. Noct didn’t seem to be eating the food at all.
「Noct? Could it be that there’s something that you can’t eat?」
Based on how he kept staring at the chicken just now, it couldn’t possibly be that he didn’t like it. Maybe there was a reason he just couldn’t eat the food. As I stopped moving the hand that I held my fork with and asked him, Noct shook his head.
「It’s not that. It’s just that I don’t know the correct manners.」
He murmured in a loss, telling me he didn’t know how to start eating. Oh dear, I couldn’t help but laugh. He dropped his head down low, genuinely embarrassed. I think. I had no intention to make fun of him. If anything, I was laughing because I was impressed that he was aware enough about etiquette to care about these kinds of things. But I guess the intention of my laughter didn’t matter that much to him.
Noct gave off an aura that felt as if he would stand up and leave if I said another wrong thing. Even so, I pushed his plate loaded with roast chicken towards him.
「Sorry for laughing. There’s no need to be reserved. You can just eat with your hands. Go on, eat just the way you’d like to.」
「……Is that really alright?」
「Yes, of course.」
Even though I nodded deeply, Noct’s eyes were still swaying with doubt as he looked down at the roast chicken. He picked up the roast chicken with both his hands and opened his mouth wide. His sharp dog-like teeth pierced through the meat, causing its juices to pour out.
Mhm. I couldn’t help but think that it would be the tastiest for him to eat however he liked, without having to care about those pesky manners.
It felt great seeing him chomp down his food, as if the hesitation he had just now had all been a big lie, As I casually peeked below the table, I could see his tail wagging happily. Oh dear, I couldn’t help but become happy.
「How’s the taste?」
「Tasty」
「Is that so? That’s good. We have seconds so eat lots alright?」
I pushed the large plate that held the surplus of roast chicken that we made towards Noct, who had summarized his thoughts into a single word. Having finished one piece in a matter of seconds, he continued to devour a second one and a third one, and so on. I felt full just looking at him eating. But I couldn’t just stop eating. I had to take in enough nutrients for both me and my baby. As I thought that, I cut another piece of roast chicken and brought it to my mouth.
After he finally finished eating a countless number of pieces of roast chicken, he let out a small but satisfied sigh. His face was expressionless as usual, but those black beast-like ears collapsed backward. Was that an expression of satisfaction? I pondered as I sipped my after-meal tea. That was when I noticed that Noct’s eyes were staring straight at me. They were such a clear and beautiful yellow that it was scary.
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